[Fwd: A search for our lost cities: An open letter to Manmohan Singh]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: A search for our lost cities: An open letter to Manmohan Singh
Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 09:29:38 -0400
From:
To:

A search for our lost cities

May 7, 2006

Dear Dr Manmohan Singh-ji,

This pertains to a special project, which I had conceived when I was
working as Culture and Tourism Minister. The project, I thought, would
have enlarged the dimensions of tourism, provided new insight into the
origin of our civilisation, and attracted a number of scholars and
archaeologists to study the unexplored layers of our past.
Unfortunately, it has since been given up.

Through this letter, I am approaching you with the request to intervene
and ensure that the project is viewed in the right perspective and
revived. I give below a brief backdrop of the project and the course
that it intended to follow.

From the point of view of culture, the project was named as "A search
For Lost Cities, A Lost Civilisation and A Lost River", and from the
tourism point of view it was titled, "Travels Around Lost Cities, A Lost
Civilisation and a Lost River". The river was Sarasvati and the
civilisation was the one known as Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati.

There were five major objectives that the project sought to achieve: 1)
To undertake extensive excavations of the Harappan settlements in the
basin of the now dried-up Sarasvati, and build archaeological museums at
the sites. 2) Set up small tourist-centres nearby. 3) Establish
documentation-cum-multidisciplinary research units with attached
pavilions, showing 5,000 years of Indian civilisation through large
panel-photographs, 3-D models etc. 4) Make the newly created complex
attractive for residents of the neighbouring towns and villages. 5) Open
at each of the centres, a small window to the visitors.

The significance lay in the attempt to provide clear answers to some
crucial questions, which I will answer one by one:

*Was there an Aryan invasion?*

It has been propagated by Western scholars and their Indian disciples
that between 1,500 to 1,000 BC, there was an invasion of India by
light-skinned nomadic tribes, the Aryans, which gave birth to the Vedic
civilisation of India. But this hypothesis has no legs to stand upon.
The study of Colin Renfrew, a noted archaeologist at Cambridge
University, not only debunks the theory propounded by Mortimer Wheeler
but also points at the similarities between the Aryan Vedic civilisation
and the Harappan one. Nor can the theory of invasion/migration provide
answers to pertinent questions like: How come the 'Aryans', who showed
strong attachment to lands, did not carry with them the memories of
their previous homeland and nurse no nostalgia about their past? Is it
not clear that the Rig-Vedic expressions like 'sabha', 'samiti',
'samrat', 'ranjan', 'rajaka', which indicate the existence of organised
assemblies and rulers of different ranks, are relevant not to the
nomadic invaders, but to the advanced urban society of the Vedic Aryans
who were indigenous inhabitants of Harappan settlements? Was not the
evolution of chariot more likely in the flat lands of North India rather
than in the uneven terrain of the Central Asia?

The last nail in the coffin of the invasion/migration theory has been
hammered in by the recent genetic studies, conducted by scientists in
Calcutta with foreign scientists. They analysed the Y-Chromosomes of 936
men and 77 castes, and referred to the work of the international
research teams that found that the earliest modern human arrived in
India from Africa, trudging along the Indian Ocean coast about 60,000
years ago. They concluded: "Our findings suggest that most modern
Indians have genetic affinities to the earlier settlers and subsequent
migrants and not to central Asians or 'Aryans', as they are called".

*Nature of Civilisation*

When, in 1922, the Harappan civilisation was discovered, only two major
settlements — Mohenjo-daro and Harappa — had been excavated and that too
partially. On this basis, views were formulated about the origin of
these advanced urban civilisations. It was given out that its roots lay
in Mesopotamia. Subsequent excavations of more Harappan sites have shown
that these views and assertions were made without adequate evidence.

John Reader, a noted scholar of anthropology and geography, has pointed
out that emergence of cities and civilisations in six widely separated
places around the world — Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, China, Central
America and Peru — was spontaneous and none resulted from contact with
one another.

Excavations carried out by a French team, headed by Jean-Francois
Jarrige, during the last 15 years, at Mehrgarh, Pakistan, have
pin-pointed the beginnings of civilisation in India and shown that
Indus-Sarasvati civilisation had no moorings in Mesopotamia or any
civilisation outside India.

It has been rightly observed: "The people in Mehrgarh tradition are the
people of India today". There are similarities between the social and
religious practices of the Harappan people and the people of present-day
India. For example, the spiralled bangles of the type found around the
figurine of the Harappan dancing girl can still be seen on the arms of
women in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc.

Again, as was the case with Harappan women, 'sindoor' is applied by
married women of Hindu families. Some other common features of the two
periods are: the practice of worshipping trees, putting of Svastika
symbol at the entrance of the houses etc.

*Did Sarasvati exist?*

There is ample evidence that supports the view that river Sarasvati once
existed.

Literary: The Rig Veda mentions the Sarasvati about 50 times, describing
it as "the best mother, the best river, the best goddess". The famous
Nadi-stuti hymn mentions a set of rivers, including Ganga, Yamuna,
Sarasvati and Sutudori (Sutlej) and places Sarasvati between Yamuna and
Sutlej. Its origin is indicated in the hymn that says: "Purest among all
rivers and vibrant, the Sarasvati moves on from the mountains to the
ocean, manifesting immense riches of the world…" She is also called the
seventh "Indus Mother". Ancient literature also talks of when Sarasvati
began to decline. The Mahabharata, the Aitareya and the Satapatha
Brahamana refer to its disappearance in the desert.

Archaeological: In 1872, C.F. Oldham and R.D. Oldham undertook a
detailed survey of the area where the Sarasvati and its tributaries were
said to be flowing in earlier times. They concluded that it was once fed
by the Sutlej and the Yamuna, and that it disappeared after the westward
movement of the former and eastward movement of the latter.

Geological: A group of scientists led by V.M.K. Puri and B.C. Verma,
made a detailed study of the areas from which Sarasvati could have
originated. They observed: "This river was in existence during the upper
Pleistocene period as it was fed by glaciers that had descended to much
lower limits in Garhwal Himalaya than the present day level due to the
influence of Pleistocene Ice Age."

Hydrological: After the Pokhran nuclear explosion on May 11, 1998, the
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre conducted tests to assess the impact of
the explosions on the quality of water in the area around. These tests,
interalia, revealed that the water in the area was potable, about 8,000
to 14,000 years old, came from the Himalayan glaciers and was being
slowly recharged through acquifers from somewhere in the north.
Separately, the Central Ground Water Commission dug a number of wells on
and along the dry bed. Out of 24 wells dug, 23 yielded potable water.

If all that I have said is viewed in entirety, this is the picture that
will emerge: the period 6,500-3,100 BC saw the growth of
pre-Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati civilisation, corresponding broadly to the
times when the Rig Veda was composed; that during the period 3,100 to
1,900 BC, the Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati civilisation prevailed and these
were the times when the hymns of four Vedas were composed; and that
1,900 to 1,000 BC was the time of the late Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati
civilisation which saw the decline and ultimate disappearance of the
surface water of the Sarasvati, forcing the people to move eastward
towards the Gangetic plain.

While the puzzles of archaeology and ancient Indian history cannot be
resolved with certainty, particularly with regard to Harappa where the
script has not so far been deciphered, it could be stated with a fair
degree of accuracy that the Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati civilisation was
born and brought up on the soil of India and its people and Vedic people
were one and the same.

A lot of additional work needs to be done to unravel a number of
features of one of the most significant civilisations of the ancient
world. Hundreds of sites in the basin of now the submerged Sarasvati
need to be excavated. It was this need that the special project intended
to meet.

This would also be of huge benefit to the tourism sector. I request you
to recommence the special project. I am confident that the project, if
implemented in the spirit it was conceived, would show new facets of
India's past, new initiatives of her present and new visions for her
future.

Yours sincerely,

Jagmohan

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1692583,0035.htm